Monday, August 21, 2023

1st day of School: 2023-2024

The boys' 1st day of school was Tuesday, August 15.  The first few days operated under the PLC schedule - Ralph's school was in session  from 8 am - 2 pm and Henry's school went from 8 am - 1:40 pm.  

This is the first full week of school.

Henry is an 8th grader at Mickle Middle School.  His 1st semester schedule of classes include English 8D, Physical Education 8, Art & Design 8, Spanish 1 (High School class), Science 8D, Geometry (High School class), and Social Studies 8D.

Ralph is a 10th grader at East High School.  His 1st semester schedule of classes include Spanish 3/4, Biology D, AP Computer Science Principles, English 10D,  Advanced Algebra D, Varsity Orchestra, and AP World History.




The "1st day of school" after school treat was Scoops.











Thursday, August 17, 2023

Wrapping up a Summer of Scouting

This summer turned into a Summer of Scouting. 

Flags at the Blood Bank
Between Memorial Day, Flag Day, and July 4th there are opportunities for putting up/taking down flags at the Nebraska Community Blood Bank.  Summer Camp was the week of Flag Day but Ralph and Henry did their part for Memorial Day and July 4th.



Summer Camp
The Troop's Summer Camp was Camp Hohn at Lake of the Ozarks Scout Reservation.  It was a "cook in camp" camp (more adults are appreciated).  It had also been a few years since I went to Summer Camp.  Add those two factors together and I decided to go.  We left Lincoln on Saturday, June 10 and stayed overnight in Warrensburg, MO at a United Methodist Church.  


After attending service in the morning we drove to Camp Hohn.


It was the first week of camp and the camp folks were still working out the kinks of providing enough food to the campsites.  We were short breakfast items one day and the boys ended up honing their pb & j making skills. .


There were plenty of opportunities to hone skills at the camp stove as well.


Henry took canoeing, climbing, model design and building, and scouting heritage.







Ralph finished Digital Technology he started a while ago, took chess again, and completed signs, signals, and codes and animation. 


One night we had a troop outing to the archery range.


The troop also signed up to compete in the water polo tournament.






OA Callouts
Henry was nominated for the Order of the Arrow last Spring and was called out in late June when we "just happened" to attend our local camp on the night of callouts.  Henry along with 2 others in his patrol were called out.

Ralph had a part in the ceremony as well.










NYLT
Henry attended National Youth Leadership Training at the end of June.  Ralph was attended as a staff member and had been preparing for it for months leading up to the it with monthly zoom and/or in person meetings.










July 3
Ralph was given the opportunity to retire flags at the City's Fourth of July Celebration (Uncle Sam Jam) with other scouts.







Seabase

Ralph went to Seasbase, a high adventure scout camp near the Florida Keys towards the end of July.  It was a crew of 6 youth and 2 adults with 2 of the youth coming from Georgia.

The name of their adventure was called "Out Island Adventure".  The crew (along with the assigned island mate), paddled a Polynesian war canoe more than five miles to a primitive barrier island located in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary known as Big Munson Island.

There was opportunity to kayak, snorkel, fish, and shark fish.


Order of the Arrow Pow Wow

In early August Ralph, Henry, and I attended the Order of the Arrow Pow Wow.  This was Henry's chance to complete his Ordeal, my chance to do Brotherhood, and Ralph attended as a general member - coming straight from Seabase basically.

Tuesday, August 1, 2023

Visit to Minneapolis

The Thursday after July 4th we ventured to Minneapolis.  On Friday, we spent some time at the Science Museum of Minnesota until it started getting too busy with summer day camp kids (and it was lunch time).  

The boys ventured down a flight of stairs to find more exhibits.




It looks like Henry is stationary but he was rotating on the Gryo Platform.  He also got into trying to solve the Hanoi Tower puzzle.



After lunch we had some down time at the hotel (ie. pool time for the boys) before meeting Nick and Jenel at their house.  We went to Red Wagon Pizza Co for supper and back to their house for dessert and bocce!  Red Wagon Pizza has been featured on the Food Network's Diners, Drive-ins and Dives.

On Saturday Nick and Jenel picked up the boys at the hotel and took them miniature golfing on top of the Walker Art Center, walked around the sculpture garden, then to a park for some zip line fun and back to their house to hang out including playing Quridor.  Mike and I came later in the afternoon.  Nick grilled hotdogs for supper.  Cornhole was the post supper activity.